THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 167 
black pigeons and naturalize ihem, were it not 
for the war spirit which they too olten manifest 
towards the weaker tribes of birds. But let it 
be remembered that these black warriors are so 
shy that they never carry o3 young birds from 
gardens or orchards near your dwellings. 
If robins and other small birds are encoura- 
ged to build near the habitations of man they 
will prefer such locations to extensive forests 
and swamps, where hawks and crows and 
snakes are more apt to be their neighbors. 
The Ignorant Farmer. 
Imagine such a one taking a walk over his 
farm in July, immediately alter a smartthunder 
storm; a delicious and peculiar Iragrance rises 
up from the ground to the nostrils; a strippling 
schoolboy at his side looks up knowingly in his 
face, ana says: “Papa, do you know where 
that sweet scent comes Irom 1” “ To be sure, 
child — from the ground.” “Yes, but what 
makes it come from the ground “ Why, the 
rain.” “But what makes the rain bring it from 
the ground?” Papa looks foolish £ nd confound- 
ed, whilst the junior boy in the junior class of 
agricultural chemistry comes out strong with 
his first lesson — “It comes from the ammonia, 
brought down in the rain more rapidly than the 
earth can absorb it, and which, being a highly 
volatile gas, is rising again into the air.” “ Non- 
sense! child.” “But it is so, papa : Professor 
Liebig and Dr. Playfair, and all the great che- 
mists say that it is so.” “But how can they 
prove it boy?” “ Why, in this way: they say 
that although the carbonate of ammonia is a 
fixed and visible body; yet if you spread fine- 
ly powdered gypsum over a grass field you may 
walk over it after a thunder shower without 
perceiving this scent; for the gypsum (whic i 
is sulphate of lime,) lays hold of the ammonia 
and obliges it to make a very curious inter- 
change — a sort of cros.s-marriage ; for the sul- 
phate leaves the lime and unites with the am- 
monia and becomes sulphate of ammonia, and 
the carbonate, abandoned by the ammonia, con- 
soles the deserted lime, and becomes carbonate 
of lime, commonly called chalk. And thus 
gypsum, though not a manure in itself, becomes 
thebasisof two manures— sulphate of ammo- 
nia and carbonate of lime. And the teacher 
says that it powdered gypsum be spread occa- 
sionally over the stables and the barnyard, it 
will catch all the ammonia that now goes off 
in smell, and, by the process before mentioned, 
increase the quantity and value of the manure.” 
— JS.Z. paper. 
Manures: Nature’s Reciprocitv System. 
— Mr. Downing:— The indefatigable Liebig, 
after his searching analysis into the nature and 
wants of vegetables, has arrived, it seems, at 
the conclusion, that, although other substances 
will be occasionally beneficial, yet we must re 
sort to the Barn yard fur the only substance 
which contains a?/ the elements that plants re- 
quire ! 
To my mind there is something satisfactory 
in being brought back after a tour of impatient 
search for fertilizers, to the simple usage of the 
earliest agriculturists, and there is a moral lesson 
taught by this result which makes us admire, as 
well as rely on the wise and beneficent laws of 
the Creator. He has so ordered i* that the ani- 
mals, and the land which sustains them, shall 
not only be mutually necessary and beneficial 
to each other, but all-sufflcient-, that when he 
decreed that man should live “ by the sweat of 
his brow,” and to struggle with “thorns and 
thistles,” he provided not only the most power- 
ful aid at the threshold of every culturist, but a 
substance which would have been a nuisance if 
it had been useless. 
The pursuit ofthe natural sciences olten con- 
duct us to positions whence we can “look 
through nature, up to nature’s God,” and it adds 
a charm to the fascinations of country life, that 
it affords us the best opportunities for the culti- 
vation of those sciences.— HortictiUjtnsL 
iHontlilj? QIalen&ar. 
Altered from the American Agriculturist's Almanac for 
1844, and arranged to suit the Southern States. 
C.4t.E.^M>Aa ETOSa NOVESJBEia. 
[The following brief hints to the farmer, planter and 
gardener, will be found to apply not only to the month 
under which they are arranged, but, owing to diversity 
of seasons, climate and soils, they may frequently an- 
swer for other months This precaution the consider- 
ate agriculturist will not fail to notice and apply in all 
cases where his j udgmeiit and experience may dictate.] 
It is now lime to close up the operations- of 
the warm season, and provide for the cold. 
Finish collecting in all yourcrops, corn, turnips, 
cabbages, &c. and see that your cellars are well 
secured against frost, and your granaries against 
depredators. Finish the fall plowing. All 
clay land should be thrown into ridges lor the 
action of the frost. One good plowing on such 
land in the fall is worth two or three in the 
spring, and as this soil has a great affinity for 
ammonia, while thus exposed, it will absorb 
large quantities of it brought down in the win- 
ter and spring, by the snows and rain, which it 
will yield to the crops the ensuing season. 
Examine the winter grain, and any water fur- 
rows which have become choked up, let them be 
opened. Standing water will kill any useful 
excepting rice. 
The yards should be well bedded with turf, 
peat, or muck, weeds, refuse straw, and other 
vegetable matters; and so constructed that the 
soluble parts of it, which are the best, shall not 
be drained off to help inundate the roads and 
ditches. If time permits, drains should be 
made to carry off the latent water, which de- 
stroys the crops or diminishes them so much as 
hardly to pay lor the raising. Under ground, 
in preference to surface drains, should always 
be constructed, unless large quantities of water 
are required to pass. Give all your roots in 
heaps for the winter an additional covering be- 
fore the ground is frozen. Have all the barns, 
and sheds well covered and mended, and the 
racks and mangers all tight and in order, that 
no hay or provender may be wasted. Before 
the ground is frozen, look well to your fences. 
No meadows, winter grain, or even pastures, 
should be exposed to poaching from cattle, 
sheep or hogs. An animal will frequently do 
more hurt in one of them in a day at this sea- 
son, than in a week while the ground is well 
settled in summer. In the meantime the house- 
hold plants, the children, should not be neglect- 
ed, and especially the older ones who have help- 
ed through the labors of the summer and har- 
vests. Good schools must be provided for 
them, good teachers and good books. Their 
minds now, and indeed at all times, should be 
as closely watched over, as the more tangible 
things of the farm. On their correct, moral, 
and intellectual education, depends much, per- 
haps all their success in after life, and no fences 
should be neglected, or bars left down in their 
young minds. Good seed sown here, on good 
soil, and well cultivated, if the weeds of vice 
and bad principles are thoroughly extirpated, 
will never tail ot producing an abundant har- 
vest. It is not sufficient that their parents see 
them furnished with all the means for mental 
improvement; they must take an interest in 
their studies also. Daily examination into the 
progress ot their children, should be the con- 
stant practice of parents; questions asked hav- 
ing a bearing upon them; the connexion be- 
tween their studies and their own business 
pointed out, to show that they have a practical 
application to the concerns of every-day life; 
and they should be explained and illustrated in 
such a.manner as to excite an interest and in- 
quiry in their young minds. The discipline of 
the school ought to be inquired into, and the 
relative standing of the children ; and when 
praise is due, bestow it, and where censure and 
even punishment are needed, they should not 
be withheld. No farmer would think ofputting 
out his land to be managed by an agent with- 
out frequent and close supervision. Do not, 
therefore, put out the minds of your children, 
which are of infinitely more value, to the man- 
agement of every individual, without a closer 
and more thorough attention than he gives to 
his grounds and his cattle. 
Commence spreading out hemp for dew rot- 
ting, bearing in mind the observations on this 
subject last month. 
Kitchen Qarden . — If not done last month, 
many of the early vegetables may be sown lor 
the ensuing spring, if you have not hot beds 
tor forcing. The beds ought to be thrown up 
high, so as to avoid water during winter and 
spring, and being soon dry when the snow is off, 
the young plants will take an early start. They 
should be well rilled with the more heating ma- 
nure, as horse dung, &c. In these, tomatoes, 
lettuce, spinagp, cress, &c., may be sown. The 
asparagus bed should have a large supply of 
rich manure, which the winter rains will drain 
of all its enriching soluble matters and carry to 
the lowest roots, and on the opening of spring, 
will be ready to furnish a fresh treat for the 
table. Let the lettuces in frames still be expos- 
ed to the air during the day, but be covered by 
the glass at night. Practice the same treatment 
with cabbage.5 and cauliflowers in frames. Take 
up all remaining roots and store them as detail- 
ed last month. Rhubarb seed can now be 
sown, and will vegetate better than if kept 
out of the ground until spring. In the early 
part of this month, manure and trench the ground 
intende ! for early spring crops. 
Fruit Garden and Orchard. — Gooseberries, 
currants, and raspberries, may now be trans- 
planted. Of the latter the red and white Ant- 
werp are considered the most desirable. Do 
this the early part of the mont.b, and in the lat- 
ter part lay down the raspberries, and cover 
them with s^dge or any other kind of litter, or 
they may be killed, or at least injured by the 
w'inter. Dig and trench or plow the ground in- 
tended for planting in the spring. 
Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds . — The 
directions for last month will also apply to this, 
while the ground is free from frost. The latter 
part of the month cover the flower borders and 
bulbous beds, and also all flowering plants and 
shrubs with a litter ol straw or of salt hay. 
Plantation . — In the latter end of October, or 
early part of November, prepare for preserving 
sweet potatoes for the winter. Select a dry 
place, level the earth, and lay a bed of dry pine 
straw, so as to form a circle of about six feet in 
diameter. On this straw pile up the potatoes 
until they form a cone four or five feet high, 
over which spread dry pine straw 5 or 6 inches 
thick. Then cover the entire cone with corn 
stalks set up end-wise with the butts resting on 
the ground and the tops reaching over the apex, 
of a sufficient thickness to conceal all of the 
potatoes. Then cover the whole pile with 
earth at the depth of at least a loot, without 
leaving any air-hole at the top, as is frequently 
done. A small shelter should then be made so 
as to prevent the rains from washing off the 
earth. This may be done by inserting in the 
ground about the pile lour forked stakes, on 
which rails may be placed to support the cover- 
ing, which may consist of boards, bark, thatch or 
other substances. Potatoes can be preserved 
in this manner untilJune', nearly as fresh as 
when first put up. 
In this month dress burr artichokes, taking 
away all their suckers, except three to each 
stock, open their roots, lay about them new 
earth and manure, and plant out suckers for an- 
other crop. Trim and dress asparagus beds by 
cutting down the stocks and burning them over 
the beds. Then dig between the shoots, level 
the beds, and cover them three fingers deep 
with fresh earth and manure, mixed. Continue 
to plant celery, set it in gutters, as it grows, and 
hill up; sow spinach, lettuce and raddish seeds, 
and plant out evergreens— they will do now per- 
haps better than in April. Plant vines or beans, 
and early peas. 
It is important to all invalids to know that 
castor oil may easily be taken mingled with 
orange juice— a little sugar being added to the 
juice, if the orange be not ripe and sweet. 
